The First Epistle of Peter gives us several important items related to the service of the church. The first item is the believers’ birth as newborn babes. This is referred to as regeneration in 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Then verse 23 says, “Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.” The divine birth means everything to us. Second, after birth there is growth. Verse 2 of chapter two says, “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation.” Third, the way to grow is by feeding on the Lord, which includes tasting Him (v. 3). If we have ever tasted the Lord, we will want to feed on Him. Feeding on Him implies the preciousness of the Lord (v. 4). The worldly people disallow and reject the Lord, but we treasure Him. We realize His preciousness, so we feed on Him by tasting Him. The fourth main item is the building (v. 5a). It is by feeding that we grow, and it is by growth that we have the building.
The fifth important matter in 1 Peter is the priestly service, the priesthood (vv. 5b, 9). This priesthood is the service, a matter of function. This depends on the building, the building depends on growth, and growth comes from the birth. Therefore, the priestly service is a matter of life. We have to stress again that without the inner life and the growth of life, the church life is not possible. John deals with regeneration, Paul deals with the inner life, and Peter deals with the same matters. The first chapter of 1 Peter speaks of being regenerated through the resurrection of Christ and by the living word of God as the seed sown into us. This is the beginning of the inner life, and this is also the beginning of the priesthood, the service. Service comes from life.
The growth of life is the expanding, the spreading, of the inner life. Again we must consider the spirit, soul, and body. John 3:6b says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” We were born of the Holy Spirit in our spirit. Now the growth of life is the spreading of this life to all the parts of our soul. In 1 Peter we see the relationship between the spirit and the soul. Verse 22a of chapter one says, “You have purified your souls.” The purification of our souls was accomplished after our regeneration. Verse 23 speaks of regeneration, which is in the spirit and comes before the purifying of the soul. After the rebirth in the spirit we need the purification of the soul. Our soul has three parts. In the mind are the old thoughts; in the emotion are old, rotten, evil things; and in the will is rebellion. Therefore, our soul needs purifying. This purifying mentioned by Peter is equal to the transformation spoken of by Paul. The purifying of the soul is the transformation of the soul. Regeneration is the birth, and transformation is the growth, the spreading of life within to permeate, saturate, and purify our soul.
This growth is made possible only by our feeding on the Lord. Verse 2 of chapter two says that we drink the guileless milk of the word, and verse 3 says that we taste the Lord. Verse 4 begins, “Coming to Him.” To come to the Lord is not once for all. This coming must be continual. We have to come to the Lord again and again, and the reason we do this is that we sense that the Lord is precious. He is dear, sweet, and precious to us. We just like to come to Him and contact Him. I like the phrase coming to Him. The more we come to Him, the more we feed on Him. In 1 Peter 2, we have the drinking of the milk, the tasting of the Lord, and the continual coming to Him. We treasure Him. He is gracious, sweet, dear, and precious to us, so we simply like to come to Him. Then the more we come to Him, the more we drink of Him, feed on Him, and take Him in. It is by this contact with the Lord that we grow.